HHS awards additional COVID-19 funding to support health systems

An office at the Department of Health and Human Services said this week it’s awarded $13.4 million so far for Illinois hospitals to help with their COVID-19 preparations and response.

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response provided funding to support efforts by hospitals and other healthcare entities to train workers, expand telehealth, procure supplies and equipment and coordinate their response.

The office awarded $100 million in April to hospital associations to help with the response.

It announced another $250 million in funding for providers this week, authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. The money will also advance the mission of the National Special Pathogen System, a systems-based, national approach to treating infectious disease.

Danny Chun, Illinois Health and Hospital Association spokesman, said the funding will help address COVID-19-related expenses.

“It’s everything, from purchasing personal protective equipment, training staff, setting up tents,” he said. “There are a whole range of things that hospitals had to do to first get ready for COVID since late January and to actually treat COVID patients and suspected patients.”

Chun said that the funding is one of many federal programs that have allotted funding to health systems and hospitals.

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response provided $6.3 million to the association in April, which Chun said the association was still working on how to distribute.

“It’s a work in progress,” he said.

In May, the office provided $3.9 million in Hospital Preparedness Program Cooperative Agreement funds to Illinois. It provided $3.2 million to the city of Chicago that will head to IHA for distribution under a contract it has with the city, Chun said.

Chun said they appreciate the funding.

“This COVID crisis has been very costly for hospitals. They are losing collectively $1.4 billion dollars a month,” he said. “Every amount helps.”

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